Flying beyond Gray's Anatomy: A psychologist's experience in palliative care and psycho-oncology.

Flying beyond Gray's Anatomy: A psychologist's experience in palliative care and psycho-oncology. Palliat Support Care. 2015 Dec;13(6):1803-8 Authors: O'Brien CL Abstract A clinical fellowship provides opportunities for health professionals to learn specialist skills from experienced mentors in "real-world" environments. In 2010-2011, I had the opportunity to complete a palliative care and psycho-oncology clinical fellowship in a public hospital. I found ways to integrate academic training into my practice and become a more independent psychologist. In this essay, I aim to share my experience with others and highlight key learnings and challenges I encountered. In providing psychosocial care, I learned to adapt my psychological practice to a general hospital setting, learning about the medical concerns, and life stories of my patients. I faced challenges navigating referral processes and had opportunities to strengthen my psychotherapy training. In the fellowship, I engaged in educational activities from the more familiar psychological skills to observing surgical teams at work. I also developed confidence facilitating groups and an interest in group psychological support for young adult offspring of people with cancer. I was able to engage participants with haematological cancer in qualitative research about their experiences of corticosteroid treatment. In this process, I came to understand the complexity of chemotherapy regimens. ...
Source: Palliative and Supportive Care - Category: Palliative Care Authors: Tags: Palliat Support Care Source Type: research